Things Change

I re-read a previous post “Shifted Priorities“, and realize I was in the middle of a mistake at the time.

I had talked about the fact that I ride for fun rather than weight loss. I was dreaming of buying a new bike, though I have two perfectly usable ones.

Since then, my mileage is way down, and my weight is up. I can make excuses about being busy, but the truth is that I haven’t been trying hard enough recently.

I do spend a lot of time thinking about bikes. I spend more time thinking about bikes than riding them. I have spent very little time thinking about my eating habits recently. I haven’t been tracking my calorie consumption or my weight very regularly.

This has led to a 20 lb weight gain over the last five months. So, I lost 100 lbs, but gained 20 of it back. That is frustrating. I feel like the “Fat Guy” that I used to be.

Not Totally Negative

I did ride to work yesterday. Then I ran some errands around Clarksville Indiana by bike. I traveled Eastern, Lewis & Clark, Greentree, and Veteran’s Parkway. I have never considered riding those non-bike-friendly-roads until yesterday, but it wasn’t as bad as I imagined (even with holiday shopping traffic), and I had a good time.

My ride terminated at Feeder’s Supply where I bought 50 lbs of pet supplies, and waited for my wife to pick me up in the truck. I had 32 miles for the day, not bad for simple utility cycling.

Now What?

Ride more, eat less! I need to start carrying around paper and pen to write down everything I eat. I normally track it on my computer, but if I’m not near a computer, it may not get recorded. I need to track it even I don’t have time to calculate the calories. I need to hold myself accountable.

I briefly considered posting everything I eat here, but that would truly make this a (more) boring place. 🙂

I need to post here more often. Writing about my weight loss attempt keeps me focused. It keeps my goals at the front of my consciousness.

5 thoughts on “Things Change”

I’ve been writing down everything I eat for nearly every day since I’ve been married (day 1137 today). Then I drop it in a spreadsheet when I’m at home. I’m not always good, but I’m always accountable. I feel like a pig because I had a bagel with cream cheese for breakfast every day this week and I just sat down with an alcoholic beverage to kick off the holiday weekend. I can empathize with the lose-it-gain-it cycle as I’ve been up that road 2 or 3 times in my life already. My only advice would be find a rhythm that you can hold for the rest of your life. I eat bad and relax one day out of every 5. I ride whenever I can, which by checking in here isn’t as much as you. I also wrestle with looking at and buying bikes more than riding. I chalk up want for different equipment to a refinement for what I use my bikes for. The only thing I could possibly justify at this point is a lighter bike when I am lighter.

I don’t think it’s a bad idea at all to post what you eat here on your blog. A woman on another blog that I read does that, she lists everything she has eaten that day at the end of her post.

I keep track of what I eat using Weight Watchers Etools. I think it’s very important to track food intake.

I know exactly what you mean when you say you are dreaming about bikes rather than getting out there and biking. I do the same thing with garden seed catalogs! I do a lot of dreaming over the pretty pictures, when I should be out there weeding and watering.

Happy New Year to you and your bride! I hope it’s a wonderful year for you.

Hang in there with the weight loss efforts. I like you have struggled with my ability to get it done. I know what works for me to lose weight, but for some reason, I lack the drive to stick to it. I have found that losing weight is difficult when life gets busy and I get tired. I find it much easier to have a plan and stick with it when my life is in balance and I take the time that I need to exercise and eat healthy. My troubles usually start with my “care taking” tendencies. I constantly feel like I need to make sure everything is okay for everyone else, before I dedicate time to my needs. Life is BUSY and if I don’t schedule it, then it doesn’t happen…and that includes prioritizing exercise time and meal planning.

Frequently I get bored with going to the gym and find that I need to exercise in some other way. Maybe you should re-evaluate what the bike riding means to you and see if it would be better to use the bike for enjoyment and not your primary means of exercise. I think I’m hearing you say that “time” is something that you are short of, and commuting with the bike takes time. When I am short on time and feeling stressed, I reach for my drug of choice…chocoate! It can be a no win cycle if I’m not careful.

Unfortunately, no one has the answers. Each person, by a process of doing what works and re-evaluating things when they are no longer working. The emotional/psychological element to weight loss is the hardest piece to master. Remember to surround yourself with positive and supportive people who encourage your healthy lifestyle.

Hang in there…you can do it. Good luck with your weight loss efforts in 2010 and thanks for sharing your journey with the rest of us.

I just read my post and realized that I didn’t finish my thought. I meant to say “Each person, by a process of doing what works and re-evaluating things when they are no longer working, must decide for themselves what the winning combination is.”